The rolled or trilled “R” is very difficult for some folks; impossible, even. My wife finds it almost impossible and ends up gargling the double ‘r’ for Spanish lessons. You can try this method: stick your tongue out and do a Bronx cheer, then gradually retract your tongue while still making that sound. It may then transform into the Spanish trill once inside your mouth.
Yes, and yes, though it took me a lot longer to learn than anyone else in my family. One day I just suddenly could do it. Once I finally got some sound out, I also was able to vary the pitch. I noticed someone being called a good whistler because they had vibrato, and picked that up, too.
I’m actually somewhat concerned that some needed dental work will disrupt my ability to whistle. It took me so long to learn.
The same is true, BTW, of blowing a bubble.
It was what I hated about Espanol. The Cuban woman who taught me was first name Rosario, last name was mostly double r’s with some vowels tossed in.
We had to address her by name in class and I sounded like the town idiot.
I never learnt to whistle, despite being quite musically inclined. It hasn’t helped that when asking for advice on how to whistle, I’d usually receive that smart-arse Lauren Bacall quote; “just put your lips together and blow”. I hadn’t realised until now just how off-putting that was…
Yeah, that isn’t helpful. If someone had mentioned that you pucker your lips around your teeth and that you had to move your tongue around to try and restrict the air, I would have been able to learn much sooner. The lips only restrict where the air can come out. They aren’t making the sound.
I can’t figure it out with my fingers, and suspect there’s a similar thing going on there. I’m not getting the full picture of all the other components.
I can’t do that - can sort of approximate the French rolled r. There’s no way I can actually do it, but, like the “th” sound for people whose language doesn’t include th, it’s one of those sounds that native speakers don’t necessarily expect foreign speakers to do well, so they can adjust for it. Basically not a big deal - you’re foreign, they know that, and there are other aspects of pronunciation that matter more.
It doesn’t help that I grew up with an accent that often makes the r without using the tongue at all, estuary English. It’s the front two teeth against the lower lip; I don’t think most speakers of my accent are aware they’re doing it. So I had to learn just to say a normal English r, let alone anything else.
Neither of them (Spanish and French) are fun if there’s more than one single ‘r’ occurrence in the same word.
Even German rolls its Rs more than I do. Saying the place name Ruhr doesn’t come out right any way I say it.
Folks think French is a lyrical language, but those guttural Rs are harsh and more Germanic, it seems.
I can whistle, but not great.
What I would LIKE to be able to do is the very loud whistle that some can do with the two fingers in the mouth thing.
I can whistle tunefully, but not loudly. Nor can I do the fingers in the mouth whistle.